MeccanoErector - Multimodel -15 Model Set ( 250+pieces)

My young 7 years old son said me some days ago: Dad, I want to be an engineer! He's playing with his Lego bricks all the time, building towers, houses, weapons, cities, robots, animals, ships, planes, cars and a lot of things that his mind can imagine. That's why I decided to try with this Erector multiset, as a small contribution to support his wise decision and his wish to the future.I had a great experience with a very old Meccano set that my parents gave to my brother, many Christmas ago. He still keep this set, and sometimes we use it play with my sons by hours. And now, we have the opportunity to expand the quantity of models that we can build!!!.All the pieces are well made, I have no complaints about it. However, some pieces are too small to handle, specially the bolts, nuts and screws. You require some skills and patience to use it with the tools, too.But despite all that, my son and I spend hours and hours playing together with the Erector toy, sharing our time TOGETHER, enjoying together, laughing together, helping each other. That's the most important!!!

I purchased this set from Amazon for my 8-yr. old grandson who is too wrapped up in his Legos. I felt that he needed a diversion ... something to turn his thinking to another method of building things, his favorite thing to do. He is now very slowly accepting them as a challenge to his imagination and is "building" things of his own creation, not from a book. This is the result I was hoping for. I would recommend Erector sets for boys AND girls!

A few things to note -This is one of the more difficult sets to build. I say this having built the motorized crane, the plane in the multi model 10, and the propeller plane in the 10-model set.For this set, of the 15 sets pictured I've made two, the featured excavator and the tow truck. Both were royal pains. The cables and springs that control these sets are difficult to properly tension, and the sets like to fall apart due to the shaking when moving. Also the treads aren't very forgiving. Pull too hard and they'll tear.The excavator was pretty straight forward to build, at several steps you may want a friend to give a third hand. Also make sure that any bolt that doesn't look like is supposed to act like a hing, make sure you tighten until stuck. Otherwise with the slightest bit of use, it'll fall off. This set took me about 90 minutes to build.The tow truck had several steps that were confusing, and at least one step that was just outright wrong. It wasn't until looking at the final image that I was able to correct it. Unfortunately the cables don't do very much in this build. For this, and the difficult tensioning is the reason I'm rating this 4 stars.I know the box says 8+, but I would not recommend this for anyone under 10. The instructions are much more confusing than k'nex or lego.

I wrote a more detailed review for another kit. I am basically a AFOL (Adult fan of Lego) and bought a few Erector sets to sample the building system and had hopes for using the cheaper and more durable Erector parts for some of robotic projects.Although they will definitely work for some of my projects, I can't say the Erector kits have swayed me from being an AFOL as the kits are a bit harder to assemble and the models are not as rigid as I have come to expect from Lego's or industrial extruded aluminum parts.

I purchased these two sets of identical building toys for two boys who always want what the other child is playing with. They haven't quite gotten into putting them together yet since they are still focused on some other Christmas gifts. I believe once they get into these sets they will be happy with them. Previously they were playing with a similar type of toy that came from the discount store and at times the hardware wouldn't work. When they brought the pieces to me, I often couldn't get it on correctly either. From having opened and looked at these sets, I think there will be less quality control issues.

My 8 year old son is just starting to get Into Erector sets. He loves Legos, K'nex, Superstructs, and just about any other toy you can build with. He really enjoys using the tools that come with these high quality kits. That being said, he did say that this set was challenging for him. I think it will get easier with more experience.

My nine-year-old son LOVES this set. He got it for Christmas and hasn't stopped building with it since. I love that it utilized eye-hand coordination and creativity a little more than Legos (we love Legos too though). I have been so happy with this and will probably get more sets for him and his younger brother for future birthdays/Christmas. Oh, and on top of that, they are so much more affordable than Legos - seriously so inexpensive!

I bought two different Erector sets for our 8-yr-old grandson as an alternative to his overwhelming Lego collection. He loves put-together and take-apart projects. He and my mechanically-experienced husband opened the Erector 15 Model box with great anticipation. They chose to build the Excavator prominently pictured on the front of the box. Well, their initial excitement ultimately turned to absolute frustration! HOURS OF ATTEMPTS TO SUCCESSFULLY "FINISH" A WORKING MODEL FAILED! It looked like an Excavator but certainly did not "walk" like one. The pieces in the set included an overabundance of shorter screws and a lack of necessary longer ones. Assembled sections would not hold together when handled. Some adjoining sections did not provide an adequate number of secured contact points for stability. As previously stated, my husband is no stranger to the world of applied mechanics. He did most of the work, leaving our grandson the observer instead of meaningful participant. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS ERECTOR SET TO ANYONE WHO EXPECTS IT TO BE FUN! If you're the type of person who relishes impossible odds or you could not care less then by all means give it a go!

The model assembly instructions have to be closely followed - and sometimes altered slightly. The models are good. While detailed instructions are given for several models, for a number of others only a finished picture is shown and the assembler has to use his/ her own ingenuity.

Excellent teached new skills